Bleeding Edge: NSA, PROMIS, Ptech and 11 Sep

[Thomas Eckhardt]

Ptech is fascinating stuff.

(For my earlier postings on PROMIS, see: 
http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=1312&msg=178507 and follow-ups)

Regarding Operation Green Quest:

"The *Boston Herald* reported later that another 'subject of the probe 
is Ptech, which was bankrolled by Yasin al-Qadi, a wealthy Saudi 
investor who has been officially designated by the government as a 
terrorism financier. (...) The company's close relationship with 
al-Quadi is of concern to investigators because Ptech provided software 
and consulting to numerous federal agencies, including the FBI, the 
Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Defense.'

(...)

Ptech was a company that specialized in enterprise architecture -- 
essentially 'the blueprints of the information contained on computer 
networks.' Ptech's software was used for sensitive operations by many 
U.S. government agencies, including both houses of Congress, the White 
House, Treasury Department (Secret Service), CIA, the FBI, Army, Air 
Force, Navy, Department of Energy, the FAA, the IRS, IBM, Enron, and NATO."

Peter Dale Scott, *The Road to 9/11*, 173-174


Scott's source for this astounding information was an article on the web 
site www.newcriminologist.co.uk which is not available anymore. Instead 
the article may be found here (disclaimer: I know nothing about that 
website but, as always, suspect the worst):

http://waronyou.com/forums/index.php?topic=333.10;wap2

"In 2001 Indira Singh was working on a risk management computer program 
for JP Morgan to monitor bank business worldwide. This new intelligent 
software could detect money laundering and other crimes while they were 
happening and then immediately alert a person or even shutdown the 
transaction. Indira felt she had found the perfect software to spy on 
transactions within the bank secretly and keep track of suspicious activity.

She was investigating the high-level information spook program PROMIS by 
a small Boston Computer firm called Ptech. PROMIS software came highly 
recommended to her by those in national security as the perfect software 
to detect money laundering and bank fraud. Ptech sold its software to 
several prominent clients and governmental agencies which included: Both 
houses of Congress, The White House, Treasury Department (Secret 
Service), CIA, FBI, Air Force, Navy, Department of Energy, IRS, IBM, 
Enron, and even NATO. Ptech had even worked on a project that revealed 
all information processes and issues that the FAA had with NAS (National 
Airspace Systems Agency)."


Of course, PROMIS had not been developed by Ptech but by William 
Hamilton at Inslaw. The suspicion seems to be that after PROMIS and 
ENHANCED PROMIS, Ptech further developed the software. Hamilton has 
stated that he does not know whether Ptech used code from PROMIS as he 
has not seen the Ptech's code.


To summarize Scott, 174-175:

Indira Singh blew the whistle. Customs raided Ptech headquarters on the 
night of December 5-6, 2002, "but the next day White Ouse spokesman Ari 
Fleischer gave Ptech an extraordinary clean bill of health." Singh's 
employers told her to forget the subject, she was "blacklisted", the FBI 
investigation came to a stop. So did Operation Green Quest. Green Quest 
investigators later told *Newsweek* their work was being stymied by the FBI.

"Singh, however, had confided her concerns about Ptech to a CBS newsman, 
Joe Bergantino. He later told NPR's *All Things Considered*that 'the 
worst-case scenario is that this is a situation where this was planned 
for a very long time to establish a company in this country and in the 
computer software business that would target federal agencies and gain 
acces to key government data to essentially help terrorists launch 
another attack."

Scott, 175.


Singh explained:

"Ptech was with Mitre [Corporation] in the basement of FAA for two years 
prior to 9/11. Their specific job is to look at interoperability issues 
the FAA had with NORAD [North American Aerospace Defense Command] and 
the Air Force in the case of an emergency. If anyone would have been in 
a position to know that the FAA -- that there was a window of 
opportunity or to insert software or to change anything it would have 
been Ptech along with Mitre."

Scott, 175.


(Mitre Corporation is quite the interesting entity, by the way.)


Whatever this signifies in the real world, it seems tailor-made for BE. 
The Ptech story relates to central concerns of the conspiracy angle of 
the novel: extremely sensitive database software used by government 
institutions including national security agencies which is linked to 
terrorist financing and 9/11? Wonderful.

Only I don't believe Pynchon knew about Ptech. When I did the research 
on PROMIS and compared the incredible, if conveniently largely forgotten 
story I found with the use made of PROMIS in BE I have to say that I 
felt a little disappointed. It seemed to me that Pynchon could have done 
a lot more with PROMIS which he appears to mention merely in order to 
have a dig at Israeli espionage against the US. Ptech is, as far as I 
can see, not mentioned or even alluded to in BE, so I do not believe it 
makes sense to follow that particular angle.

Of course, I would be delighted if someone could prove me wrong.

Thomas
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Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l